In the early hours of Wednesday, shares of Bank of Baroda (BoB), a state-owned lender, saw a decrease of more than 2 percent.
By 10:10 am, BoB’s shares were trading at Rs 208.70 each, reflecting the impact of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) directive to suspend the onboarding of new customers through its mobile application.
The RBI, acting under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, has ordered Bank of Baroda to immediately stop the process of onboarding new customers on its ‘bob World’ mobile application.
According to an official statement from the RBI, this action was taken due to specific supervisory concerns regarding the customer onboarding procedures via the mobile app.
“The action is a response to certain supervisory concerns that have been identified in the manner in which customers are brought on board through this mobile application,” added the central bank.
The RBI has mandated Bank of Baroda to address these identified deficiencies and enhance the associated processes to the RBI’s satisfaction before resuming any further customer onboarding for the ‘bob World’ application.
The RBI has also made it clear that any future onboarding of the bank’s customers on the ‘bob World’ application depends on the bank resolving the identified issues and improving the related processes to meet the RBI’s standards.
“The bank may onboard customers on the ‘bob World’ application only after rectifying the identified deficiencies and strengthening the relevant processes to the satisfaction of the RBI,” emphasized the RBI.
Furthermore, the bank has been directed to ensure that customers who are already using the ‘bob World’ application do not experience any disruptions due to this suspension.